Religion
Related: About this forumTribes: End oil leases in last ‘religious bastion’
The Blackfeet Tribe has sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell requesting a meeting on oil leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.
Karl Puckett, kpuckett@greatfallstribune.com 5:52 p.m. MDT October 24, 2014
Tribal chiefs and leaders representing the Blackfoot tribes in Montana and Canada met Friday in Browning and called on the federal government to end energy development in the Badger-Two Medicine area, which they consider sacred.
The Blackfoot Confederacy is made up of the Blackfeet in Montana and three bands in Canada, said John Murray, a tribal historian with the Blackfeet in Montana.
Representatives of those four tribes met and passed a joint proclamation insisting that the U.S. Department of Interior cancel what they allege are illegal oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area, he said.
We think it might be groundbreaking to work together, Murray said. Coming back together as a nation was really moving and powerful.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2014/10/24/tribes-ask-government-halt-oil-leases/17863807/
http://www.blackfoot.org/greaterblackfootnation.php
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)This includes, of course, mineral rights and water rights, etc., even if they on what are presently BLM and national forest and other federal lands.
It's long overdue.
I hope their demands are met to their satisfaction.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)They talk about "the last religious bastion", but don't really explain what that means.
Do you know?
rug
(82,333 posts)If it cant be protected from drilling, then everyones sacred space, from Mount Sinai to Bethlehem, is at risk of being violated, Murray said.
The phrase is in quotes so it may come from the resolution. If I find the text of it I'll add it.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I'm not sure why they even need to invoke "sacred space" into this. It's their land, right?
rug
(82,333 posts)The treaty, signed at gunpoint, likely cedes title to the government but reserves to the tribe certain uses of the land.
okasha
(11,573 posts)but the feds "reserve" some law enforcement and "management" functions to themselves even on reservations.
And everybody gets a cut of the profits except....guess who?
rug
(82,333 posts)I suppose reserving mineral rights at gun point is marginally better than seizing the land at gun point.
There is a persistent theme in governmental policy going back centuries.
Edit: it looks like the reservation is adjacent to the federal land. In any event, the entire area is ancestral land of the Blackfeet but I surmise that part of it not on the reservation is owned by the federal government.
http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/diversity/native-american-heritage-in-preservation/saved-places/badger-two-medicine-area.html